This issue ofCitylife

Solitude Is Bliss, A Timeless Artistic Piece

by Wanta Ramanat, 15, a student at St. Stephen’s International School, Bangkok

July 28, 2016

Since I was young, I’d always been the type to listen to as many different genres of music as possible; you’d be shocked to see how many songs I have in my itunes library, from Nirvana to Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro. I barely say no to anyone who introduces me to a new band or an album. A few months ago I was about to enter the annual TISAC Battle Of The Bands and since I was the youngest and the newest member of the band, I wanted to impress the members since what the band played was so different to what I usually listen to, so when they started suggesting song ideas I listened to every single one of them, it was definitely at least 25 songs in there. I was rushing, my internet was dying, my mum was yelling at me, my sister was crying and then I came across one of the suggestions, ‘Solitude Is Bliss’, the first thought in my mind was that it was a pretty cool name, I tried to rush through it, it wasn’t possible, I ended up downloading the whole album. It’s so different and foreign. They’re not famous; they are just different. If it was a month ago and I saw this on my YouTube suggestion list I probably wouldn’t have listened. It’s like this door that opened up, letting me into this whole new level of music.

Solitude Is Bliss is a five member, alternative rock, band from Chiang Mai’s very own Minimal Records.The band includes Thanapol Chumkhammool (Fender) who plays the guitar and is the singer of the band, Sedthakit Sitthi (Beer) another guitarist, Jomyoot Wongto (Dong) the bassist, Songpon Kaewwongwarn (Pound) on the keyboard and lastly Saran Dolpipatpong (Frank) on the drums.

Recently and fortunately I had the opportunity to chat to Frank the drummer of the band, thanks to facebook, one of the most most down to earth artist I’ve ever met, even when he was busy he still made the time and effort to talk to me. I’ve met lots of artist in my life, some very popular and some with only a few followers but most of them never really made a good impression with me, they tend to be have very self-absorbed personalities. Perhaps the fame got to them before I did.

I asked him about how they came together as a band where he explained that it all started when they were at university. Beer Dong and Pound studied in the same faculty where they became friends and started a band so they could compete at a competition in their first year at university. After the competition ended they invited Fender, a junior in the same faculty to come join them and help them write their first song ‘4:00 AM’. Not long after that, they met Frank who was playing at the same bar, who also joined the band. After finishing up the song, they were going to send it to the “No Signal Input” project, but unfortunately they missed the deadline. They decided to go Sumate Yodkaew or Mate, the owner of Minimal records, who they met personally to propose for contract to be an artist. Since then, they took songwriting and making music way more seriously as an artist of Minimal records.

I also questioned him about their aims and the goals they want to achieve as a band in the industry, he replied saying that “To have the time, the space and the equipments to produce music that has better quality and has more depth so that the music that we make can be like timeless artistic pieces”. He also explained that what makes Solitude is Bliss unique is probably that they’re very humble when they perform. Their music has a variety in terms of the mood and the tone, their context scopes their point and what they’re trying to convey through their music.The music that they make create these questions in the end, leaving the audience wanting more for the answers.

The first song that, in my opinion was very powerful and interesting is ‘Vintage Pic’. The song takes you back to your youth and this idea of an old photograph in your memories. They explained that the idea of the song came from when Beer, the guitarist, struggled with his midterm exam in university making him very devastated. When he came back to his flat, he saw an old picture laying there, one of him and his mother when he was young. The message this song is trying to convey is the fact that at that time he wanted to go back to being a kid. (listen to Vintage Pic here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp5mcV_hD40)

Another song that has been on replay for a few days on my phone lately, is ‘3:00 AM (sleep tight)’, It’s exactly the type of song that would make you get lost in it and end up falling asleep.I’d really recommend this song for anyone who finds it difficult to fall asleep, the music is so soothing and calming you’d be sleeping before you realise it. The song was inspired by an event that happened to one of their close friends where his girlfriend was involved in a terrible car accident. At first they only managed to write the music and only some of the lyrics. But luckily, one day Beer when to get his driver’s license and it took way too much longer than expected, and before he even realised it, he had finished writing the whole song.(listen to 3:00 am here http://music.sanook.com/music/song/6c_Bh_9N3h55_0NUTn2ehw==/lyric/ )

So far they have released one EP and an album, the EP is called ‘Montage’ with 5 tracks and there is also a reissued version available at stores such as the Nhung Sue Lao Store and Thip Net Store, and at the Seascape and Minimal Gallery. The album ‘ Her Social Anxiety’, their first album, containing 16 tracks. These are available for sale as CDs at minimal records store at Nimman Soi 13, and also available as mp3 on itunes (the link will be down below).

I asked him about any upcoming projects or events and he replied saying “ soon there will be a new song that we rearranged for this project called “Cross Play” by Fungjai, The idea of this project is that an older band and a younger band will be paired up and exchange each other’s song which will then be rearranged by their partner, there will also be many bands involved.” You can definitely stay tuned by liking their facebook page (the link will also be down below) and keep track of the cool things they’ll be doing, and maybe find out who’s song they’ll be rearranging.

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